The lawyer Gloria Allred, left, on Wednesday with Clarence Watley, the father of a former girlfriend of Brandon Marshall.CreditDavid Goldman/Associated Press

By Ben Strauss

Sept. 18, 2014

LAKE FOREST, Ill. — With the N.F.L. reeling from the recent string of abuse charges against a number of prominent players, the Chicago Bears’ Brandon Marshall, a five-time Pro Bowl wide receiver, addressed the issue of his own past with domestic violence at an often contradictory news conference Thursday at his team’s practice facility.

During the nearly 40-minute session with members of the news media, Marshall pushed back against the notion that he symbolized the off-the-field violence associated with the N.F.L. He spoke of the abuse he received as a child, saying his mother had a belt drawer, and that he was often sent outside to pick the tree branch to be used to whip him. He said his mother and grandmother had both been sexually assaulted.

“I love controversy, because it’s a platform to talk about some of these issues that really need to have light shed on it,” Marshall said. “I grew up in a house, better yet an environment, a neighborhood, where it was volatile. There was domestic violence.”

Marshall spoke one day after Gloria Allred, a civil rights lawyer, appeared at a news conference in Atlanta to discuss a series of episodes seven years ago that involved Marshall and his former girlfriend, Rasheedah Watley. Both a friend of Watley’s and Watley’s father, Clarence, said that Marshall repeatedly abused Watley while the N.F.L. did nothing, echoing the criticism that the league had been too lenient in its handling of Ray Rice, Adrian Peterson and other players involved in the recent spate of domestic-violence cases.

Earlier this week, ESPN aired an updated two-year-old segment examining Marshall’s history of abuse in light of the recent events around the league. Marshall has been involved in a dozen altercations during his career, but none since he was traded to the Bears in 2012. He was found to have borderline personality disorder three years ago.

Marshall spent time at the MacLean Hospital in Belmont, Mass., where the diagnosis was made, and since then has been a vocal advocate for mental health awareness.

He arrived at Thursday’s news conference with stacks of court documents to distribute. There were only a handful of copies for a room packed with members of the news media.

The packets included records from court proceedings with Watley and a note from her lawyer asking for a cash settlement in exchange for a confidentiality agreement.

During the news conference, Marshall wavered between aligning himself with Commissioner Roger Goodell by voicing support for his suspension of players and pleading for observers to withhold judgment when players are accused of violence.

“It’s not the N.F.L.’s job to raise men,” Marshall said. “Whether the process is a day or whether the process is a month, we have to gather all the facts before we go playing judge and jury.”

In a telephone interview Thursday, Allred said her news conference was not intended to target Marshall but to highlight the N.F.L.’s poor record of investigating abuse cases.

Marshall said that he had met with Goodell over the summer to discuss the legal issues with players that are becoming an increasing problem for the league. He said Goodell had seemed genuinely concerned with how he could help players like Josh Gordon of the Cleveland Browns, who has had repeated run-ins with the law.

“He really cared,” Marshall said. “He cared about our community, and he kept asking me: ‘What is the call to action? What is the call to action?’ ”

Marshall also maintained that players were often the targets of people trying to take advantage of them. He said that when he was a member of the Broncos, his brothers visited him in Denver and invited a woman over to his home; he awoke in the middle of the night to find her vomiting, and kicked her out. He said the woman then went to a neighbor and falsely accused him of assaulting her.

“This is unpopular what I’m doing,” Marshall said. “There’s going to be a lot of people criticizing me. But it’s been six or seven years, and I haven’t said anything.”

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page B11 of the New York edition with the headline: Comments by Marshall, Bears’ Top Receiver, Reflect Complexity of Abuse Issue. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe